Today Romney is appearing at a fundraiser in Las Vegas thrown in his honor by the supremely self-absorbed Donald Trump. Confronted with his association with the fear-mongering Trump who continues to trumpet widely discredited charges that the president was born in Kenya—and, hence, is a fake American—Romney told CNN, “You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me, and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe it. But I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”

Talk about judgment based upon the absence of a moral center. The only thing Romney stands up for is what’s good for Mitt Romney.

The GOP presidential nominee’s actions stand in sharp relief to an experience I had in 1960, when then-Sen. Hubert Humphrey visited Howard University during his campaign in the D.C. Democratic presidential primary. A government major in my junior year, I asked Humphrey how he felt about the attacks being launched against John F. Kennedy’s Catholic faith in the upcoming West Virginia primary. Without missing a beat, Humphrey said that although he was seeking a victory in West Virginia, he didn’t want to win with anti-Catholic votes.

Humphrey, unlike Romney, did not behave cowardly.Humphrey based his decision on what was right and wrong; not what would do him the most good. Humphrey stood up for what was right.Romney cares not about the truth; he only cares about winning.

Is that not the definition of moral bankruptcy?

Colbert I. “Colby” King writes a column -- sometimes about D.C., sometimes about politics -- that runs on Saturdays. In 2003, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. King joined the Post’s editorial board in 1990 and served as deputy editorial page editor from 2000 to 2007.